SOCIAL MEDIA OVERVIEW

FACEBOOK: For many web sites, Facebook has emerged as one of the top traffic sources. Google and Bing have both indicated that they are using “socialsignals” as part of their ranking algorithms, pointing to Facebook and Twitter, in particular.

TWITTER: As with Facebook, Twitter has been singled out as a component of Google’s and Bing’s social component. Search for related groups and followers to get your message out to the right audience.

Four Square is another channel that lets your customers engage with your brand. Whether they are checking to try and become mayor or sharing their latest experience, this is a great place to connect with them.

PINTEREST: One of the fastest growing social media channels ever. The marketing potential is considerable when you consider that popular images (with links back to the original source) can get repinned on hundreds of other users’ boards.

EMAIL MARKETING: encourage newsletter sign up on website &facebook; this is a great way to keep the customers informed of seasonal specials, new menus, promotions, company news, etc.

BLOG: a blog is a great way to keep fresh content circulating about your property. It can promote local events and attractions, company news and specials. It is also a great way to reach customers on the web 2.0 channels they prefer.

Urban Spoon is a popular restaurant review site – it is important to make sure your listing is optimized. Can also post from twitter feed.

Flickr is a photo sharing site. Your restaurant has great photos and this will be another good place to share them. The more channels on which you have a presence the better…again…the goal is to meet your customers where THEY “hang out.”

A QR code can have many uses – from promoting a special to encouraging client reviews to encouraging Facebook Likes.

Over 90% of text messages are opened within the first 5 minutes of receipt. Mobile websites, text campaigns, Text to Vote campaigns and more. Great way to promote specials, reach diners on slow days or nights with last minute specials and more. In addition, a mobile friendly site is crucial to reaching people that are searching for your location, hours etc. from their mobile phones.

GOOGLE+: Google is now pushing their own products in search rankings. Which means if you have the +1 button on your website and/or blog and you also promote your content via your Google+ page, your rankings will be higher than your competitors who do not. Google Offers is another free way to promote your specials on a weekly or monthly basis.ACTION: 2x week post industry related news, blog posts, etc.

CITATIONS: are defined as “mentions” of your business name and address on other web pages. An example of a citation might be an online yellow pages directory where your business is listed. Citations are a key component of the ranking algorithms of the major search engines. Other factors being equal, businesses with a greater number of citations will probably rank higher than businesses with fewer citations. Important directories differ by industry but include Merchant Circle, Manta, Yellow Pages, Hot Frog and more.ACTION: Initial benchmark to check current listings are up-to-date then quarterly monitoring.

REVIEWS: Another reason it is so crucial to claim your citation listings is that many of them also play an important role for building your reviews. Reviews are the new Comment Card and the more (positive) reviews you have, the happier Google is to recommend your site. Once you have claimed your citation listings, you can encourage guests to leave their reviews on the site of their choice. Creating Google Alerts will help monitor your online reputation so you can respond to positive (and negative) reviews promptly.ACTION: Optimize account and monitor reviews for quick response.

As you know, Trip Advisor is an important site for the hospitality industry. Claiming and monitoring your listing is critical here.ACTION: Optimize account and monitor reviews for quick response.

YOUTUBE: If you have videos, YouTube is very good for building links back to your site because the videos rank very well. YouTube channels are a tried-and-true way to send some really good exposure and SEO back to your brand.ACTION: Review and optimize YouTube Channel to ensure tags are properly used to maximize SEO exposure. Promote YouTube videos across different channels. It will give older videos new life to promote on new channels.

LINKEDIN: Create business page for online exposure.Review client profile to make sure it is optimized. A business page will be created but not necessarily promoted on a regular basis.

GOOGLE ADWORDS, also known as PPC can be a very effective way of getting to the top of the search engines.